


The Jackal: Washington DC

by elflordsmistress



Series: The Jackal [3]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:08:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28047447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elflordsmistress/pseuds/elflordsmistress
Summary: What happened after Donna and CJ left the Residence at the end of 'Requiem'?  This is #3 in a series of standalones about the song
Series: The Jackal [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2052945
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	The Jackal: Washington DC

**Author's Note:**

> This really wasn't where I intended to take this - but this is where it went and I've made my peace with that.
> 
> We only get to hear a piece of 'The Jackal' in the show, but the last two minutes of it (mostly instrumental) are really something, even if you're not into urban jazz.

_**CJ’s apartment** _

“You weren’t joking …” Donna said as she surveyed the mess.

“I promise there’s a bed in here somewhere ..”

Together they made quick work of shuttling papers, shoe boxes, and other miscellaneous items into the living room; sharing personal stories about Leo, and speculating about how Mallory and Margaret were doing. It was quiet, busy work that they both needed, but something was niggling at Donna.

“CJ?” she asked, as she watched her friend hang up several of the evening gowns she’d brought over to her from the spare room.

“Yeah?” 

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Were you and Danny arguing because of me?”

“Why would you think that?”

It was not lost on Donna that CJ hesitated slightly and didn’t turn around.

“He looked pretty upset.”

“Upset?”

“Annoyed.”

CJ mumbled something incoherent.

“CJ?”

“Yes?” came the guarded response.

“ _Yes_ he was annoyed?”

“ _Yes_ as in I’m responding to you calling my name.”

CJ turned slowly to face her.

“I understand if you don’t want to talk about it but .. just so you know .. your _ears_ are blushing,” Donna deadpanned as she turned and left the room.

CJ hung the last few dresses up and took a deep breath as she walked into the living room.

“Donna ..” 

“ _Hi_ ..”

It took CJ a moment to realize that Donna was on the phone with someone.

“Do you want me to come over?”

Donna listened intently to the person at the other end of the line and wrapped up the call a moment later.

“I have to go.”

“Was that ..”

“Margaret,” Donna nodded. “I have to go, CJ.”

“Of course. I’ll go with you.”

Donna shook her head as she looked at her watch.

“It’s almost midnight, you have a busy day tomorrow.”

“ _I’m going with you_. Just .. uh .. give me a minute to call the car and get changed.”

“Okay.”

* * *

_**Margaret's apartment** _

  
“It’s me ..” Donna whispered as she tapped her fingernails against the door to Margaret’s apartment.

Margaret’s eyes grew wide as she caught sight of CJ’s security detail, and wiped her hand nervously against her skirt as she stepped aside to let them in.

CJ glanced around the apartment when they’d been cleared to enter. 

“Can I get you a coffee?” Margaret asked, her hands tugging at her clothes.

“Sure.” CJ said, knowing she’d regret caffeine later, but understanding that this was a coping mechanism for the woman fidgeting in front of her.

She was complimenting Margaret on her eclectic decor as she followed her into the kitchen, when Margaret turned abruptly and barred her way. 

“I’ll bring the coffee out to you.”

But CJ had already seen through to the kitchen; the only evidence in an otherwise immaculate apartment that Margaret was struggling.

Unwashed dishes, unpacked groceries, a laundry basket.

She had started to backtrack when a baby’s cry pierced the air.

Margaret’s lip quivered and CJ could see panic reflected in her eyes.

“I’ll be right back,” she said before disappearing down the hall.

CJ felt Donna slide into the doorway next to her and they surveyed the kitchen together.

“ _Should we?_ ” CJ nodded towards the dishes in the sink.

“I don’t know ..”

CJ shot her a surprised look, clearly not the answer she’d been expecting.

“You think we _should_ ..” Donna started tentatively.

“I _do_ , actually,” CJ said as she shrugged off her jacket, rolled up her sleeves, and stepped up to the sink.

When Donna hovered uncertainly, CJ tossed “ _maybe you can start by making the coffee?_ ” over her shoulder.

“Right.”

They worked in companionable silence, and by the time Margaret was back from settling the baby, the kitchen had been straightened out, Donna and CJ were sitting on a couch in the living room, and three steaming cups of coffee were lined up next to each other. 

Margaret perched on the edge of an armchair and seemed to be chewing something over in her brain.

“I know I’ve never said who her father is,” she said suddenly. “ _And I’m still not going to say_ ..” she added as Donna sat up a little straighter. “But she’s not Leo’s.” 

“Glad we could .. settle that part.” CJ said with an authoritative nod.

Margaret nodded sharply, and went back to fidgeting with her skirt.

CJ had just opened her mouth to say something when the baby started to cry again.

“She’s uh .. I can’t get her to settle today,” Margaret said apologetically.

“Babies feel their mother’s stress. _What?_ ” Donna ignored the withering look from CJ. “They do ..”

“Can I see her?” 

It occurred to CJ that she had never seen the baby.

Margaret looked surprised but stood up and led the way to the nursery.

“ _Hi_ ..” CJ mouthed softly over the edge of the crib.

The baby stopped crying for a moment, and took the proffered finger. CJ wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but the sight of a mop of red curls took her breath away.

Something she wasn’t willing to give a name to tugged at her heartstrings with such ferocity that she dislodged her finger without intending to. 

It merely served to startle the baby, who promptly started to cry again.

Margaret swooped down and picked her up, peering at her intently.

“You want to breastfeed now, don’t you?”

“I’ll .. uh .. wait in the other room.” CJ beat a hasty retreat.

“ _She’s beautiful_ ..” she said to Donna in awe as she rejoined her in the living room.

Donna smiled and agreed.

“Want another coffee?” 

CJ looked at her watch and shrugged.

“It’s morning in Europe. I guess we can pretend we’re having breakfast and go into work jacked up on caffeine.”

They were on their third cup when Margaret appeared in the room with the baby in her arms, looking exhausted and stressed out.

“She won’t go down.”

“What can we do to help?” 

Margaret shifted from one foot to the other uncomfortably, and CJ knew enough by now to know that something was percolating in her assistant’s brain.

“Margaret?”

“She likes _The Jackal_ ,” Margaret said as she thrust the baby towards her.

“ _What?_ ”

“Once when I was pregnant and she wouldn’t stop kicking, I played _The Jackal_ and she calmed down.”

“Well .. uh .. okay." CJ looked around uncomfortably. "You want me to ..”

“Do _The Jackal_ ,” Margaret said nodding firmly as she handed the baby over and moved over to her CD collection.

CJ’s mind spun. It wasn’t just that she hadn’t done this in several years, but she wasn’t sure how to make this work with a squirming baby in her arms.

“Maybe _you_ should hold her ..” she said, handing her back as Margaret handed Donna a remote control.

“Press the button when she's ready to start,” Margaret said as she settled back on the couch and placed the baby facing forward on her knee.

“Can we get some mood lighting here, please?” CJ said in Donna’s general direction.

“ _Dim the lights_ ,” Margaret whispered urgently to Donna.

Donna obliged and then slid onto the couch next to her.

CJ took a deep breath. Slipped out of her shoes and turned her back on the people in the room.

She raised a finger into the air to let Donna know she was ready, turned, and lowered herself to the baby’s eye level.

_Did I ever tell you about that man who changed my life?_   
_The one I thought, oh my Lord, when I saw him walk in the back of that bar_   
_All tall and lean with them broad shoulders, sweeeet lips,_   
_I knew that I had .. died and gone to .. Chocolate Heaven_

The baby chortled, drawing smiles from everyone.

The familiarity of the song’s opening theme washed over CJ, and she found it wasn’t as hard as she’d anticipated to find her groove.

_He had a real deep voice, and white pearly teeth_   
_And his shoe was always shining_   
_Long slender fingers manicured perfectly_   
_The man wore 800-dollar Italian suits, straight from_   
_I dunno, what would they call it_   
_Milan or Rome or someplace like that?_   
_I knew it wasn't local_   
_I said, I got to get next to that_   
_I haven't seen him in a long time_   
_My man was so fine_   
_He could get any good girl into trouble_

The baby’s eyes widened as CJ moved close to her face again.

_You asked me me what his name was?_  
 _Well. . . The Jackal. The Jackal._ _S_ _ay.. The Jackal_

CJ watched the baby’s delight as the words _the jackal_ repeated over and over.

But she watched her mother, too, and she knew where her thoughts had gone.

“Leo loved this song,” Margaret said quietly to nobody in particular.

CJ toggled the baby’s toes to see what she would do, and the little one giggled in a way that made CJ melt.

_He was fat back cat cool_   
_Like a Friday afternoon martini_   
_Chillin' at a quarter after 5_   
_Twist of lime, Coke on the side_   
_The brother loved the high life_   
_Had a Ph.D. in street stride_   
_They called him The Jackal_

She hammed it up just a little more than usual, to see if she could get more from her, and was delighted when the little one responded.

_He was big Mack daddy super black stylin'_   
_A diamonds in the back Cadillac_   
_Fur-lined boards, white wall wheels_   
_Cruise control, built for speed, chrome on evray-thang_   
_And the stereophonic speakers, though he really didn't need them_   
_When they called him. . . The Jackal_   
_Say .. The Jackal_

The words repeated, and she watched Margaret again; bobbing her head to the rhythm and bouncing the baby up and down on her knees.

_Fly boy was in the buttermilk, hard_   
_Livin' fast, livin' large, 6 foot 4 and not an ounce of fat!_

She touched the baby’s nose with her finger, and the baby rewarded her with a gleeful shriek.

_When women asked, 'is you a frown Cat?'_   
_He said 'My dear, I'm more that that, I'm the frownest of the frown_   
_And in case you .. hadn’t known, they call me The Jackal._

CJ knew the upcoming part was Donna’s favourite, and lifting the baby off Margaret’s lap, angled the little one towards Donna and gave her the floor.

  
_He served an 18-year bid_   
_First Riker's Island_   
_Then they hid him in the state penitentiary_   
_Said the charge was Grand Larceny_   
_That was 1975, and today .. if he's still alive_   
_He'd be living in the park_   
_Hm_   
_The brother whose claim to fame_   
_was that they called him The Jackal_   
_The Jackal .. The Jackal_   
_Say .. The Jackal_

Donna had gone to town and the baby had gurgled happily throughout, but CJ could tell she was losing steam.

The sound of Ronny Jordan’s hybrid guitar filled the apartment as she cradled the baby close and swayed with her; covering her little ears against the sound of the more strident instruments moving to the forefront of the track. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Donna and Margaret swaying to the music, too, and the two minutes evolved into a shared moment of love and loss and grief. She was hyper aware of the moment when the baby started to fade, and she held her a little closer; threading fingers through her curls and gently teasing out a tangle or two, and then turning her face up and running her index finger from the baby’s forehead to the bridge of her nose. Her eyes fluttered closed and her breathing evened out.

CJ realized that Margaret had turned down the volume.

“She’s asleep,” she whispered. “I’m going to ..” 

Margaret nodded as she picked up the coffee cups and headed for the kitchen.

CJ placed the baby in her crib and stood there watching her for a moment. 

“Leo _really_ loved that song,” a voice said from the doorway.

“I’m glad we got to do it for him together one last time tonight.”

“Me too,” Margaret said, before nodding sharply and leaving the room.

CJ cast another look at the baby in the crib, marvelled at her perfection, and stroked her hair; the unbidden thoughts back with a vengeance.

"One day .." she said as she risked touching the auburn curls one last time.


End file.
